"Well somebody's got a case of the Mondays"

Ok, a quick update...

Friday night I went to a bar in Kyoto with the Jets. It was good fun, but i MAY have had too much to drink again. We met some people who took us for breakfast in the old city. Kyoto's a really beautiful city, not at all like Osaka. We met some people living in Kyoto who took us to a restaurant with breakfast, which was good.

Saturday, Steve and I went to see Oliver Twist in Namba. I didn't like it and am starting to think I might hate all British orphans. In fact, despite the $15 admission fee, I convinced Steve to leave mid-way through with me to go across the street and eat chili cheese fries at Wendy's. That's right, I found a Wendy's in Osaka. It's not quite like back home, they don't even have JBCBs(Junior Bacon Cheeseburgers), but hey, it's still Wendy's.

And then, suddenly, my weekend was over. I had agreed to work Lee (from work)'s all-day Sunday shift. It was exhausting. After work I went for steak dinner with my co-workers. The "German Bar" in the train station was having a sale on steak: just 630 yen. But with steak came two beers and a chocolate sundae and I regretted going... money is getting very tight and pay-day is more than two weeks away!! I can't wait to be off "probation" and actually get the chance to save some cash. Well, at least I'm learning...

All last week I watched the movie X-Men during breakfast and finished it on Friday. I had bought the video a while ago for $3. Saturday I found X-Men 2 also for $3 and have started watching it today. Did you know that the third X-Men movie is coming out in May? I can't wait. Would you like me to keep talking about this?

For the past couple of days at school, I've been growing tired of the "lessons" and have started playing a game with the students. I tell them four things about myself, one of which is a lie. They have to formulate questions about my statements and in the end have to guess which one is a lie. My standard truths are usually:
1) I have acted in three movies: a Canadian movie, an American movie and a Japanese movie.
2) Japan is the 26th country I've visited.
3) I weighed 120 kg when I was a teenager.
They usually find them all equally unbelievable, so I usually throw in a lie that would be really hard to disprove, like "I am a certified scuba-diver", "I visited the Middle East with my family" or "My mother was born in Switzerland". I have been asked to say something in Swiss, at which point I just say some gibberish. One time they asked me to give them my favorite memory from Egypt and I told a vividly beautiful story about the Pyramids at Giza at sunrise, but they didn't buy it. Sometimes the students just don't get the concept altogether and ask me questions like "What is your favorite movie?" But usually it goes over pretty well and the students are divided among guessing that each of the three truths are the lie.

Ok, I'm going home to bed. Happy 24th Birthday Aaron Woodyear (I'm going to keep up with that whenever I can remember). I'm going to leave you with a restaurant sign from Dotonburi...

"Zoe's Birthday"

Wednesday night there were celebrations for Zoe's birthday. Zoe's the British girl from orientation. About fifteen of us went to a 280 bar and later to karaoke. This was my first time in karaoke in Japan and I should say that I'm disappointed in both the price and my singing. Karaoke's probably the most popular entertainment activity in Japan, though I've decided that if I do it again, I'd much rather do it with Japanese people (rather than British people) who I might be able to convince that "this is how the song is supposed to sound".

After growing tired of the karaoke room, Mark and I decided to explore the enormous karaoke building and made our way up through dark floors of rooms that weren't being used. It was kind of like being in an abandoned castle that has Ferrari- and soccer-themed rooms. We made our way up to exploring the attic and actually found our way onto the roof, which was pretty exciting.


"Run-in With the Law"

A funny thing happened on my bikeride to the train station yesterday. As I weaved through the narrow streets near the train tracks, a man in some kind of official-looking jacket began biking alongside me and starting telling me to do something in Japanese. I didn't know what he was saying, but it was pretty obvious that he wanted me to pull over.

I had been advised that, when dealing with the authority here, it's much easier to just pretend you speak absolutely no Japanese than to try to work things out since htey'll usually just give up, but he and I stopped and explained that I couldn't speak Japanese. He continued to interrogate me in Japanese, but I just kept the puzzled look on my face and replied in quick, confused-sounding English.

He then pulled out a police badge and asked me for my passport. I patted my pockets with a look on my face saying "Ooh, sorry, I don't have it", and he nodded. "Gaijin Card!" he ordered. Apparently, at all times foreigners have to carry around with them either their passport or gaijin card (alien registration card) for curious policemen. I pulled out my gaijin card and showed it to him. He examined it closely, then his eyes lit up, "Nova!!" he exclaimed with a smile. I guess it says where I work on my card. He decided to let me go, but warned me to keep that card on me.

I later asked my students what all that was about, as in why would they just come up to me randomly while I was obviously on my way to work just to hassle me for identification. I didn't really get a straight answer, but they didn't seem to think that targeting foreigners for this type of ID-checking was anything unusual.

A similar thing happened to me back in Rome in the summer. Sarah and I were meeting with a group of backpackers and some guides to go on an evening tour and pub crawl and met by some fountain. There was a couple standing nearby who I noticed were staring at us suspiciously. They started to walk away, but then threw on police vests and jogged over to us. They asked to see all of our ID and when they found out that our American guides were in charge, they threw them in a police car and drove away. There were people from across the fountain laughing and filiming us with video cameras. So there we were, about 15 backpackers from around the world, just standing there, not understanding what was going on and waiting for them to bring our guides back. After about ten minutes we gave up and just raided a liquor store and went to drink in Campo di Fiori square and it ended up being one of the most fun nights of the trip. This story has gotten way off-topic.


"Water Troubles"

Today, in the middle of my afternoon shower, with my hair full of conditioner, the water just stopped. We had been getting notices for a number of weeks with the date 1/27 on it, but couldn't figure out what it meant. But I think I figured it out... it was "no water" day. So I made my way to the sinks and was able to use the remnants in the tap to rinse out my hair. But it was still annoying. Since I didn't have the chance to shave, today's going to be my first day without, as Nova calls it, "excellent appearance".


"Let's Misuse English Words"

***Japan Topics***
TOPIC #2: The word "let's"

Since I arrived here, I've noticed one main things with the English of advertising: the excessive use of the word "let's". You see, Japanese is full of little word-endings and gimmicks to make the phrase sound more polite. With English's lack of politeness, Japanese-speakers scramble to find words to make it all sound less confrontational. Here's where "let's" comes in.

In my first week here, I went to a restaurant. The waiter who sat me, struggling to put together a sentence in English, said: "Let's sit down!!" and motioned towards a table. "Let's!" I agreed, but he didn't come sit with me. Instead, he just kept working as if he'd never even made the offer.

But then I started hearing and seeing this word all over the place. The big photo machines at Yodobashi Camera, for example, have the big catch-phrase "Let's Photo!". I'm attaching a picture of a fun-sounding restaurant sign in Shinsaibashi:



Another word that seems to be overused is "corner". Back on my quest to find a towel in November, I was confused by having been directed by numerous storeclerks to go to "___ corner" (such as "second floor sporting goods corner") and find that the area that they described had nothing to do with a corner. I still haven't figured out if this is some kind of direct-translation issue.

Time for work again. It's Friday, but I'm not moving into much of a weekend... I've agreed to take Lee's all-day shift Sunday in exchange for him taking mine at the end of next month and a little extra cash. Talk to you soon,

Ryan

"Poker Night" or "Renoucning my Citizenship"

Is it possible for me to cast my absentee ballot late? Why didn't any of you tell me there was a federal election looming?!! I leave the country for two months and this is what happens?!!

So last night I hosted a poker game at my place and it all went over fairly well. If you're wondering, I invited the Kyoto guy who posted a comment on my blog back in December, his name is Swedish Carl and he's a bit of a pro. Also in attendance were Canadian Justin, British Graham, American Frankie, and spectators Australian Mark and my roommate Will, all of whom you've met before. Four of the five guests attested to the fact that my apartment is horrible and I should move out as soon as possible. The other one lives in a dorm and thought my apartment was lovely.

Since I work until 9pm, the game didn't really start up until 11:30 or midnight, and it went through most of the night and the local 7/11 was blessed with periodic visits of foreigners purchasing alcohol. After Frankie and Graham were knocked out of the game, they left with Mark for a nearby bar called Fly Over which is supposed to be "good" (not really) on Tuesday nights. A little after 4am, Carl and I had both lost all of our chips to Justin and he pocketed the winnings of 7,000 yen ($70). I hate losing.

Justin, Carl and I set off to meet up with the others (the trains for them all to go home don't start up until 5:30am). Justin and I both made the claim that we were Geography Champions, so we held a competition along the way, but I clearly destroyed him. Yes, I know the capital of Turkmenistan, it's Ashgabat. When we arrived at the bar, they were just closing up and the others had drunkenly wandered off somewhere. We met up a little bit later near the rail tunnels of Shinosaka and all made our way to Nishinakajimaminamikata (the next neighbourhood over) where I claimed that there would be some izakayas (Japanese-style bars). I was wrong, but we found a vending maching restaurant where we ordered some food.

By vending machine restaurants, I mean restaurants where you walk in and instead of waiters, they just have big machines with buttons. You insert your money into the machine and it prints you out a ticket, you give that ticket to the chefs and they cook and deliver your food. It's clearly a much better system than having to make small-talk to anyone. They're absurdly popular here with businessmen.

At 6am they all went home, and so did I. When I woke up today, I jumped out of bed, thinking I was somehow late for work since I forgot to set my alarm. But no, work starts at 5pm and it's kind of impossible to be late by oversleeping. But it's time for work now, so I'll continue this later.

Two Months in Japan II: Apartment-Hunting?

Sorry about last post's abrupt end (though looking back on it I guess it was quite the cliff-hanger).

That afternoon I was meeting up with a German girl who I met at the hostel in Tokyo who is studying in Kyoto. She sent me a text message the night before saying she was coming into Osaka for the afternoon and asked if I wanted to meet up for coffee, so she came to meet me at the Apple Store (the computer company - they have computers with free internet) and we walked into America Mura (the American youth district - no actual Americans, just Japanese people with dreadlocks wearing t-shirts that say things like "Mother Africa" and trendy shops selling used American clothing from the early 90s). Amemura is great, lively any time of day.

So a couple of hours later I headed up to work, then after work headed north to Shiga prefecture. My friend Steve was able to get me in on a great "gig": one hour of English conversation at a community centre in Shiga for $100. REALLY necessary for a part-time worker like me to escape starvation. There was only one catch: it was at 9:30am on a Saturday morning. So I had to camp out in his apartment the night before.

The conversation thing was pretty good. There were four of us, American Steve, American Tim, Irish Therese and me, and about 17 Japanese people. The people in more rural areas like this are really appreciative to be able to speak English with locals. It all went fairly smoothly in my group since I'm now pretty used to making conversation with Japanese people after all the Voice classes I've had to lead. I really hope they invite me back to do this in future weekends (it's a regular event, at least once a month I think) because it's great money and pretty easy.

Therese demonstrated (and had them practice) some series of Irish dancing moves which earned her a fair amount of applause. She went north to go skiing afterwards, but Tim, Steve and I all went for revolving sushi.

Ok, I know you're wondering when I'm going to get back to finishing off last week's cliffhanger, so here goes:

I've decided I'm definitely moving (I've been more or less considering it since the day I arrived, but thought I'd wait it out a little bit). My house is a disgusting mess. I'm used to living in messy, "unsanitary" conditions, but this is just ridiculous. I can't cook a meal or touch the majority of things beyond my room without risking getting the plague. It's run down too, you can barely call it, as they say, "furnished", since of the appliances have probably been around since the 70s. Yes, the 70s, as in the decade before I was born. Thirdly, I'm being slightly shafted, as one of my roommates has a balcony-adjacent bedroom that is at least twice (probably three times) the side of mine, including numerous things such as a desk, two closets, a clothes rack, bookshelves. Mine barely has enough room for my futon (and no, as were promised to me, clothes racks - I'm hanging my shirts and suits on a piece of wood in my closet). Fourthly, my roommates have really gotten used to the atmosphere of living in the slums... they rarely wash dishes and have sometimes seem to forget the concept of where garbage is supposed to go. I think they might also have some fire safety issues, but that's another story.

Oh, and for all this I'm paying 58,000 yen per month. Someone in my neighbourhood told me they were paying 57,000 yen per month and showed me their apartment - it was only a bit smaller than ours but was all to herself.

Things are still not too bad, though, since I don't spend all that much time at home. It's kind of like staying in hostels while traveling - you just need somewhere to pass out after a long day of sightseeing and a long night of heavy drinking. But now that I've started becoming more frugal and would really like to start cooking and spending more time at home, I would really like somewhere safe and clean to do so.

But before I get to that, I'll tell you what I recently found out about my apartment last week (probably the thing that really got these new apartment plans in motion). I was complaining about it to a new person at work when my co-worker Janette (who has been here for a few years) said: "Oh, you live in Lions Mansion... you don't happen to live in that Nova apartment on the sixth floor, do you?"
"Why yes, I do," I replied, "Why?"
"Oh, God. Well... my friend was placed there a couple of years ago. He's a pretty dirty guy and the apartment was horrible disgusting back then..." And she basically described my apartment minus two years of absolutely no cleaning or hygiene. Hmm... No wonder I'm the fourth roommate in the past six months.

Will warned me about this ahead of time, though, saying that he and Chris are just really relaxed when it comes to being clean. So nothing against them at all, they're overall really great roommates and I'm a bit worried of what my new ones are going to be like.

That brings me onto the next matter: where I'm going to live. I can call Nova and tell them to just reassign me to a new apartment and I think it can all be done pretty easily. I like my area so I might request to stay here, unless I could get something even more convenient like Umeda.

Another idea is just to give Nova my month's notice and get my own apartment with a private landlord, though that's all a little complicated in Japan. On the plus side, a regular apartment would be much cheaper (Nova ups the rent by something like 33%). But on the negative side, there's the whole "dealing with a Japanese landlord" thing. And this is much worse than it sounds. For example, it's customary to pay something called "key money" in Japan. Key Money is a gift of something like 3-6 months worth of rent to your landlord when you move in. So that's something like $1800 easily the day you move in. And it's not like this is some kind of deposit or something credited towards your future rent payments, this is just a "gift" that you have to give you your landlord to thank them for letting you be a tenant in their apartment building. There are more complications, too, that's just the scariest part.

So one consideration I've been taking into mind about my new apartment's location is the gym. I need to join a gym and don't know where to sign up since I might possible be moving. Gyms in Japan have an annoying tendency to all operate on their own, meaning that if I signed up with one, even though it's a big chain company, I would still not be a member at their other locations around town. Someone told me today that books have been written saying that Japan is regarded as a great place for entrepreneurs because of all of these types of inefficiencies still lurking about. This could be an interesting topic if I end up doing a Monbukagakusho research thesis here, but that's another topic to be covered later.

I've been checking out gyms around town and was going to hold a "readers' poll" this post so that you could get involved and vote on which gym I should join (they're pretty much all the same price but have different advantages). But I want to wait until I find out more about where I'll be moving.

I have to go to bed.

Two Months in Japan

I'm supposed to meet someone across the street in two minutes, so this update has to be quick.

It's official: I've been here for over two months. As I've explained before, time passes really slowly here, so it feels like I've been here a really long time, but in a nother sense it feels like I just arrived. I celebrated yesterday by cooking for the first time. I can't believe I haven't cooked in my entire two months here. I cooked a HUGE feast: Chicken nuggets, thai chili sauce, rice, spinach and orange juice. Chicken nuggetes take too long to cook, so I just ate my my spinach by hand from the bag while I was waiting. Actually, it wasn't much of a sit-down meal now that I think about it.

I also realized something else that I haven't done since I arrived: finished unpacking. Yeah, one of my suitcases is still about half-full with crap that I shouldn't have brought (clothes that I don't wear, books that I don't want, addresses of people I don't want to write to). So maybe I should just not bother unpacking it and just leave it all in there, nicely folded up for the trip home next fall.

The other night I ate a cactus taco at the taco stand in Juso (run by a woman who immigrated from Mexico 25 years ago). She suggested the cactus taco to me and it was actually a good change of pace, though it basically just felt like chewing rubber.

So I've decided that I'm definitely moving out. I haven't been able to decide where to go, though. Not only is my apartment a dirty shithole, but I recently found out that it has... whoa, I have to go, the person I was supposed to meet just walked in, I'll finish this later!

Ryan

Some December Pictures!

Here are a few pictures from December including Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe!






Here are some pictures from December, descriptions go:
AB
CD
EF
GH

A) Night-time bustle in Shinsaibashi/Namba
B) Saturday on a Crowded Osaka train
C) Old-style Street-side Buildings in Kyoto
D) Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto
E) Christmas in Kobe
F) Luminarie Festival in Kobe
G) Lazy Monk Collects Coins on Bridge
H) Ever wonder what that cool foreign-language shirt of yours actually says?

Late this Week

Wednesday I had my "follow-up training" with Nova. This means I had to go to a more central branch in Umeda for the day for some group learning. A group of seven of us (the only one I knew, though, was Mark) reviewed some of what we had learned in our Orientation week and refined our teaching skills. Unlike our original training, this was actually a lot of fun.

In our original training, they had gotten us to go through lessons with each other, pretending we were students. At the time, this was nerve-wracking, since none of us had really taught before and had little experience in bullshitting our way through an enthusiastic lesson about "Giving Directions" or "Asking for Permission".

By this point, however, we've all had enough experience to be able to sit back and let it flow a little. Also, we had the opportunity to act as students. This allowed us to perform all the characteristically 'interesting' actions that our Japanese students will do. For example, when being asked a question, getting a really nervous expression, looking from side to side, then pointing at yourself with both hands and asking "ME??!" - even while being the only student in the classroom. It's all kind of funny because everyone has seen these things.

On a sidenote, some topic's in class always get the same reaction. For example, a common question that comes up is "What are your hobbies?". Although a few students will respond with something interesting or outlandish like "Hang-gliding", about 98% will answer a combination of the following items: Studying English, Driving, Shopping and Singing Karaoke. I was surprised to find out that for most people, studying at Nova is their hobby.

Back to Wednesday, the training session started and ended a few hours earlier than my usual shift, so I was down in Umeda during the last bit of daylight hours. I decided to explore a new area of town that I had never seen (in hopes of stumbling upon tacos), and headed southeast. I didn't find a Mexican restaurant, but ended up getting lured into a Tahitian restaurant that served something with "taco" in the name (though it ended up being little wrapped clumps of vegetable with a little bowl of salsa). The restaurant was pretty interesting, though, it had kind of a beer hall atmosphere and palm trees. Also, there was a waitress from the United States who spoke perfect English. I will probably not go back there.

That night I did find something exciting, however. Have I ever told you about the grocery store near my house? No, not Max-valu, a closer yellow one. Well, I found out that right around the corner from that, there's a much better grocery store. It looks kind of like a small "Superstore" from home and is now my favorite place to buy my three grocery items: bread, peanut butter and orange juice.

Thursday night played poker at my co-worker Frankie's apartment. It went swimmingly as always and I left the next morning as the big winner. They were a fun group of people to play poker with, so I guess I now have a fairly extensive list of people I can invite if I host a game.

My weekend generally starts on Fridays at 9pm, though not this week. I had agreed to take over Frankie's shift since Friday was his 25th birthday and he would need Saturday to recover. We agreed to a "shift swap", meaning he will work for me on March 1st and will pay me some extra cash since my shifts are only four hours and his was eight. A lot of people want to do shift swaps with me since I have the coveted Saturday-Sunday weekend (most people have obscure ones like Monday-Tuesday or Tuesday-Wednesday). I have already signed into three agreements and am trying to build up the entire week off around the end of February and beginning of March so that I can do something exciting that I can look forward to through the winter.

So I did my first eight-hour shift yesterday and it was a little exhausting, but not unmanageable. I had a break right in the middle, which kind of made it feel instead like two separate days of work. The only thing I didn't like, though, was having to come in at the ungodly hour of 11am.

In voice, one of my students outlined for me something interesting about Japanese popular culture: skin colour. We discussed the concepts of parasols, staying out of the sun and skin-whitener. She said that the Japanese consider it to be feminine to have white skin and to be masculine to have dark skin. She topped it off with the quote: "I don't like a man who is whiter than me." But then thinking she offended me, quickly added, "But for foreigners it's ok."

Early this Week

It's Friday and it's been a pretty good week, but it's not over yet. More on that later.

Last weekend I went to visit American Steve (one of the Jet teachers) in a small town in Shiga prefecture, about an hour north of us. I couldn't believe how much the climate changed in that hour, though. After passing a late-autumn-looking Kyoto, the train went through a mountain and emerged on the other side in some kind of winter wonderland. In Steve's town, there was a couple of feet of fresh snow on the ground, it was great and has made me want to go skiing.

We ate at a revolving sushi restaurant. By this, I mean that the cooks just prepare sushi, put it on a coveyor belt that goes around the restaurant, and customers just grab whatever they want and eat it. Each plate is a different size or colour to indicate the item's cost, so at the end of your meal, the waitress just adds up the amount of plates you used and charges you correspondingly. It's delicious and great to be able to actually see your food before you buy it (and come on, the world needs more conveyor belts...)

Monday I was approached by, Kimiko, one of the Japanese staff members at work. She asked me if I would like to have a "shift slide" at the end of the month where, instead of working my regular 5-9pm shift, I work 10am-2pm. I told her no thanks. She looked confused. So I explained to her a bit about sleeping patterns and that was like me asking her to come in at 3am instead of her regular 10am shift. She turned around and went back to talk to her manager. Frankie, my co-worker, came over to me and told me that no one EVER says no to them like that. I was a little bit worried, but she came back in and said that she was going to ask Lee instead. Sweet, I have asserted my dominance.

Tuesday evening I went to a Media (internet) Cafe in Juso. After a couple of hours on the computer, it struck me: I had forgotten to bring my cash. Furthermore, the staff doesn't speak any English, so I had no way to even explain to them that I didn't have the money to pay. So after a little bit of thinking (and a little bit of considering to just run out of there and never come back), I opened up an online English-Japanese web translator. I don't know if you've ever used these things, but they're pretty horrible. They don't translate directly, word-for-word, but unless you have a good grasp on the language you're translating into (meaning, how to structure your English so that it makes a bit of sense), it comes out as some kind of rough gibberish. So I typed in...
"I have no wallet. I return with money."
...hoping that this would be simple enough to translate without major errors. I grabbed one of the staff members pulled him over to my computer. He seemed to understand. He typed something in, translated it and it said...
"But, leaving status for, isn't that so?"
...I just kind of smiled and nodded as I usually do, gave him my phone to hold as collateral, and biked home to get some money. Everything worked out, but I think I figured out what he meant afterwards. He was trying to tell me that I can leave, but the computer timer will be left running.

Ok, I'm on the verge of running late for work, so I'll contine later on. Have a great weekend,

Ryan

Still no Tokyo

Hey, whoa, sorry about the lack of posts. But don't say I didn't warn you about January already. Actually, I started trying to sum up Tokyo, but it wasn't working very well (a lot of "and then we went here... and then we went here...") so I decided to instead just upload all my pictures instead. I have them all up online in a photo album (there are a lot, I should warn you) so I'm going to caption them and then post the link.

Meanwhile, things have gone back to normal this week. Teaching is getting easier and easier, I think I'm becoming better at it too. Ok, I know this is a relatively short update, so I'm going to launch a new segment of my blog before I go home to bed. It's called... ***Japan Topics***. ***Japan Topics*** will just describe the way things are in this country, one topic at a time, for things that don't fit into my day-to-day regular blogging segment.

***Japan Topics***
TOPIC #1: TOILETS

Since I'm rarely at home here and often on the move, I've had the thrilling opportunity to experience a vast number of washrooms. One way or another, toilets in Japan are hilarious. There are two main types.

The first one you may encounter is the Asian-style toilet. This is a disgusting, primative model that you'd probably not even recognize as a toilet back in Canada. It's built into the floor and is often surrounded by some kind of disgustingness. It has nowhere to sit, you're just supposed to somehow squat over it while you go about your business. I don't recommend it.

What I do recommend, however, is the other kind. For example, here in the internet cafe, I know that I can get up, walk into the bathroom and find the second type, which I will label the Toilet of the Future (trust me, they'll exist in your country in a few years). It looks like a regular Western-style toilet, but bigger and more gadgety (there's a little control board at the side). As you walk into the stall, the toilet senses you and the lid lifts up on its own. The control switchboard has various options, such as making the sound of rushing water (so that others can't hear you using the washroom). It also has functions to wash you afterwards, with varying types of spray and intensity. When you get up to leave, you really don't need to do anything. You just walk away, it flushes itself and closes the lid again. Oh, and the best part? Heated seats.

So walking into a public washroom stall in Japan, there's always a bit of excited anticipation as you wonder which extreme you're going to have to face. One thing is always for sure, though: it won't be a boring ride.

Pre-Tokyo - New Years Break 2005

Whoever told me that it would only snow in Osaka once over the winter was outright lying. It's freezing here tonight, 0 degrees right now, probably the coldest I remember feeling here. I know you're sitting there, scoffing at the fact that I'm complaining about 0 degrees when Canada is something like -46 degrees, but it's different here. Central heating apparently doesn't exist and I can feel the cold air coming through my thin window at night. Also, I still need to buy a jacket. This isn't what I expected, temperature-wise. You're probably going to hear me talk about this a lot over the next month as it gets colder, so brace yourself. Anyway, I have a lot to update you on and not a lot of time, so I'll get to that straight away.

I finished work last Tuesday, marking the beginning of New Years vacation. New Years is the big family holiday in Japan, like us and Christmas, so students probably wouldn't be coming to Nova anyway, so the whole company shuts down for a week. As I mentioned, I decided to go to Tokyo.

Actually, a lot of people went to Tokyo for New Years. It wasn't too bad since apparently a lot of the traffic is going in the other direction around New Years since people working there escape to their hometowns to be with their families. Also, everything kind of shuts down in Japan for the New Years era so Tokyo was kind of the best place to be in terms of things being open.

So Tuesday night, both of my roommates left for Tokyo (taking an overnight bus). It was great to have them gone and I decided to devote Wednesday to trying to clean up their filth around the apartment.

It wasn't easy. Wednesday came around and I worked solidly for a good few hours. I cleaned the living room by separating the garbage from the VHS tapes and vacuuming. They had been considerate enough to leave a sink full of not only their dirty dishes, but also the remnants of their last few meals, which was really nice to clean out. While trying to clean the sink, I found a little basket in the drain that was full of rotting little morsels of damp food that has been collecting for... I don't know, months? Years? I cleaned out some of the kitchen drawers and started to clean the stove, but one of the elements started shooting out sparks when I touched it with a cloth, so I decided to back away and write that area off. I also brought down seven or eight bags of garbage to the garbage chute. The garbage (almost exclusively provided by my roommates) had been piled up over the garbage can and flowed onto the floor. Yeah, our kitchen was really exciting.

Wednesday night I met up with Mark in Shinsaibashi for a bar that he had found, selling 200 yen ($2) drinks, which is shockingly low for Osaka. Afterwards we went and played darts with some locals in Balabushka's, I'm definitely not getting any better at this game. I ended up leaving to catch the last train home, but then biked back down. Mark and I literally bumped into a Japanese guy named Takashi on the street. He started talking to us and then took us to an izakaya (Japanese-style bar) and ended up footing the entire 3600 yen bill. His English wasn't very good, but he was really funny and made it clear that he wanted us to attend a party of his the following night, so we agreed to meet him the following evening at 7:30pm.

Thursday I bought my shinkansen (bullet train) ticket with Catherine, a girl from New Glasgow (Nova Scotia) who I had met Christmas Eve. Catherine and I were leaving for Tokyo the following day.

That evening, Takashi, Mark and I met up in the Umeda train station, where Takashi vaguely explained that we had to go buy 500 yen ($5) presents for other people at the party. We bought our little gifts and went to meet up with his friends. His friends could speak even less English and he didn't introduce us, just kind of motioned for us to go with them (three Japanese girls) and ran off in another direction. Through a lot of hand motions and repeated words, we learned from them that Takashi was helping to organize this end-of-year party at a Chinese restaurant for the hospital in which he works. We waited for about half an hour by the JR station before we got a call from Takashi saying the restaurant was ready.

We (the 5 of us and two other friends of Takashi) were the last table of people to arrive in the restaurant and were off to the side from the rest of them, who apparently all worked for the hospital. We paid something like $35 to sit down, which was a little alarming at first, but we got a lot of good Chinese food and unlimited beer.

A lot of things happened throughout the meal that we didn't understand. Mark and I knew that we were introduced as special guests, but didn't really understand what they were saying. Later on there was a big powerpoint trivia contest and one of the questions was about where Mark and I came from. I kind of cheated during the trivia by looking at other people's answers and my group ended up tying for first place, so to settle it we had a "Janken" (Japanese Rock-Paper-Scissors) match to settle it. I'm used to be really good at Rock-Paper-Scissors (seriously, predicting what people were going to choose used to be a talent of mine) but since I've come to Japan I've been thrown off and I lost really horribly. My group was very disappointed in me.

But, like I said, lots of weird things were going on that we didn't understand. They had everyone write down characters on pieces of paper, which were thrown into a plastic bag and never heard of again. I heard murmurings from the rest of our table about Elijah Wood and Anakin Skywalker - they were discussing who we looked like, I've gotten Elijah Wood from Japanese people before so I knew they meant me and Anakin for Mark. I replied "Lordo of the Ringsu Furodo" to which they clapped. Why do I get the loser character? Suddenly, the lights went out and really poppy music started playing. Takashi and a couple of other guys came out in monkey suits and started dancing. People clapped and they danced for song after song. The party-goers were loving it and they had obviously spent a good amount of time choreographing these elaborate dances. It was really great.

After the restaurant, everyone else headed to a club but I had to catch the train home, I had to get ready for Tokyo.